“You know, honestly, everyone at Marvel, including me, was so caught up in ‘Civil War’ and everything going on in that that when I was working on this issue, I didn’t think about how big it was or the fact that it was going to be this huge thing that got tons of media attention….

“You know, I figured we’d probably sell more ‘Captain America’s than we usually did but it wasn’t until after ‘Civil War’ was over and this comic had already been drawn and was in-house that people started looking at it and going, ‘Hey, we’re killing Captain America! This is kind of a big deal!'”

“So for me it was an extension of all the stories I had been building up in the book so far. This is the Red Skull strikes back storyline. This is the big Red Skull revenge storyline.”

“I hope that if it changes my career it’s not for the worst. (laughs) You know, I didn’t really think about it that way. I just always try to think about whatever books I’m working on at that moment and what those stories sort of call for and what those characters are trying to get across. I never really think of the larger implications of these things until after they’re done.

“I mean, I knew it was going to be kind of a big deal that we killed Cap, but I didn’t think it was going to be THAT big a deal. I mean, I didn’t think it was going to be the kind of thing where people were like screaming about it and the book having to go back for second and third printings and things like that. I’ve never had any kind of response to anything like that that I’ve done.”

On working in comics today

“I think it’s a really exciting time to be working in mainstream comics. And especially for me, I just love the amount of stuff that I’m able to get away with in my Marvel books and really take these characters through the ringer. Or the meat grinder, perhaps.” (laughs)

On making parallels with Captain America to the political climate

“I wasn’t really trying to make any other than the kinds of ones that I always feel like Captain America makes. Which is that he sort of stands for an ideal of what America is supposed to be or what it could be as opposed to what it sometimes is maybe….

“I’m not one of those people who really is in favor of mixing political allegories in with fiction. I think stories should just be stories. I never try to put my own political beliefs into any story that I’ve ever written.”

On whether it’s a challenge to write a character like Captain America

“I always saw Captain America as somebody who was sort of not one thing or the other. He was a guy who grew up during the Depression who probably worshiped FDR and the New Deal and saw all the benefits of social democracy in action, and at the same time he spent most of his adult life in one capacity or another working for the military. And so I always thought he would be a really interesting character and that he wouldn’t be right-wing or left-wing. He would look at every issue with all the shades of gray that actually come with them.”

“So for me that’s never been a problem. I mean… every right-winger wants Cap to be right-wing and go punch Osama in the face and every left-winger wants Cap to be storming into the White House and yelling at the president. (laughs) I’ve just tried to do cool espionage-esque kind of Captain America stories tapping into the stuff that I always thought was really cool about him as a character. He’s America’s super soldier. That’s pretty cool.”